MUMBAI: Sober colour, stiff collar, minimalist design...the formal shirt, a rite of passage for young corporate executives who give up their B-School wardrobe of denim/chino-dominated casuals, is giving way to...denim/chino-dominated casuals.

Corporate India's dress code is witnessing a quiet, bottom-up revolution, with first-time and young executives wearing smart casuals at work and being encouraged to do so by their employers. The steady abandonment of formal attire as de rigueur office wear is showing up in the top lines of formalwear brands and shelves of retailers. Most of them are reporting lower sales contribution of formal wear.

Smart casuals — pricey T-shirt, branded denims and chinos, for example — are seeing a strong pick-up. Akshay Nayar, a 26-year-old management trainee who got his Bschool training in IIM-Lucknow, appeared for a job interview with Godrej wearing a Ducati T-shirt and smart denims. Nayar got hired. He and other interviewees had been told by Godrej they needn't come in stiff, formal wear.

Two months in his corporate job, life is different for Nayar, but not his wardrobe collection. "We are allowed to wear smart casuals in office...it indicates openness in work culture," says Nayar. "At times, formal wear prevents out-of-the box thinking...since it makes the entire setting formal and serious."

The 20-something trainee's philosophy is shared by many India Inc veterans. "We are not into formal attire at all — it's mostly smart casuals tending towards casuals. There are even people who come in jeans," says Rajeev Dubey, president group HR, corporate services and the aftermarket sector at Mahindra & Mahindra.

"Being casual helps people to be more relaxed...it promotes a culture that is not bureaucratic, hierarchical and gives equal opportunities to gender and age groups," says Dubey.

At the Aditya Birla Group, a strict dress code is not applied. "There is no strict dress code on color of attire, tie or no tie, jacket or suit, salwar kameez or saree. The primary thing is to dress appropriately and like a professional," says Santrupt Misra, CEO, carbon black business, and director, group human resources at Aditya Birla group.

If companies are getting cooler about office wear, the formal shirt and its counterparts are inevitably going to get a bit of a cold shoulder from customers. Says Kabir Lumba, managing director, Lifestyle International, "It is no longer a taboo to wear a denim or colored chinos or experiment with similar combinations that allow for greater inclusion of casual wear. So, currently, casual wear growth rate is more than double of that of the formal wear category."

"People find it boring to wear formals even on a Monday, says Jacob John, head of India's largest formal-wear brand, Louis Philippe, that now earns over 40 per cent from casual wear and jeans. "While formals continue to grow as it is needed for important business occasions, casual wear is growing very fast. Just two years ago, contribution from casual was hardly 25 per cent."

Raymond's Sanjay Behl, CEO, lifestyle business, says the difference between formal and classic casual has blurred. Smart casuals are the new hot trend. Retailers report the same trend. "Corporate wear used to have a much more formal design sensibility while the definition of office wear today is more characterised by sporty or casual designs," says Vinay Bhatia, executive vicepresident at department store chain Shoppers Stop.

The casual wear segment now contributes more than 50 per cent of the retailer's sales in the men's apparel category, up from 25 per cent a few years back. There are pockets of resistance to this office wear revolution. Senior management almost everywhere still suits up, certainly for big company occasions. And banking, finance and consultancy are among the islands of conservative office dress even for the young.

Consulting firm PwC, for example, advises men and women to wear formal attire on weekdays (Monday-Thursday) and smart casual wear on Fridays. "Dress code plays an extremely important role in a professional services environment... I always encourage employees to go with the more conservative, this way it will be more difficult to disenfranchise anyone else," says Mark Driscoll, human capital leader, PwC India. But that's unlikely to stop the march of pricey tees and branded denims through India Inc's offices.